I Almost Destroyed My Steam Deck Installing This... 

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Personally, having been an electrician for 24 years, if a screw is stripped out and there is no hope for getting it out and you are pretty sure you aren't going to be able to use that screw hole again anyways, I take a drill bit about the size of the shaft of the screw and drill just enough so the top of the screw pops off. Would have probably been way safer than a dremel. In some cases, you can drill that screw out of the hole completely, then use a tap to put threads in the bigger hole, and then use a screw that fits. Just a tip from a guy that has been "screwed" many times.

Use scotch tape. Take a small piece, fold it a few times and then place on screw head. The screwdriver doesn't punch all the way through and the tape fills the head perfectly with good grip. Works better than any other method I've tried on electronics.

As an IT guy, taking apart electronics is in my job description. Sometimes things don't go your way even though you did everything right. I relate to this experience sooo much. I'm glad you had a good result in the end though! Also great content as always. Your audio/video quality is excellent and your commentary is very engaging and entertaining. Keep up the good work, your channel is underrated

Some notes for the future, I have upgraded many of these. And to be honest, most people that have upgraded to 1tb will eventually come back upgrade to 2tb. So you may be doing this again. So in relation to what you did try... 1. The superglue method by itself usually will not work for untampered factory screws that strip coming out. Instead use the superglue + baking soda method to turn the superglue from more of a crystal consistency to a much stronger almost "concrete" consistency. 2. You can get rotary tool blades at most hardware places IE: Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware that are much thinner than what you were using. In the case of using a rotary tool it is best to cut a small slit in the head of the screw. Then quickly try & use a small flathead screwdriver to unscrew the screw while the screw is still hot. The heat will usually help loosen the screw. However I can se in the video the, plate was not welded to that base, the screw itself has a tapered head. You would have needed a small cylindrical grinding stone for your rotary tool to fully grind the head off that screw. And since the bottom of the head has a small taper that means you would also had to have needed to shave off a small bit of the surface of the shield & screw at the same time so you can get the shield around the taper of the screw head. 3. Anytime you must use the rotary tool I would worry less about the sparks & heat. But, more about the microscopic metallic dust particles that the sparks & grinding creates, I hope you blew the device out with compressed air. On parts that thin, small or low density, it may feel pretty hot, but is usually not hot enough to even melt the solder. You have to keep in mind some of these components in general, go through a very high temp heat bake to melt and adhere the solder on many components all at once, vs soldering each contact pad individually. So conductive dust is usually your worst enemy and fear if having to grind electronics. 4. Overall however, it is always good keep a precision extractor set even for DIY'rs. Because you just never know... 5. You do not have to wait for the battery to recalibrate once everything is reassembled. Plug a POWERED usb-c dock (Like the official dock) into the deck and make sure the power cord is plugged into the dock. It will start up right away as normal and recalibrate as your are loading up the recovery image.

Dude I was crying laughing when the plate and screw fused together haha, it just went so wrong so fast. Thanks for sharing.

I feel you! I received my new Steam Deck SSD 5 days ago and when I was removing the first 8 screws, I stripped the last one, bottom left inner one. I got terrified and tried everything I had in my house, without success. Then I took it to a near laptop repair store and they removed it for me for free. What a relief! Great video, keep the good work.

This brings me back to when I stripped 2 screws on my laptop heatsink. I also have gone down the rabbit hole of these alternative options to getting stripped screws out. One of scres I would eventually have some luck with trying out other screw sizes from a newer screwdriver kit I bought like 6 months later--even just the same size with different bits can make a difference for the grip; the other I ended up eventually getting out using a matching screw extractor. The screw extractor was quite difficult to come by though, since most of them are intended for wood screws. I ended up buying an earlier set that didn't go small enough with its smallest size, but then I lucked out with a newer set. It was super stressful, though, using a battery powered drill with the screw extractor on my laptop so close to the cpu and gpu since it was an expensive one (Zephyrus S15)--I can't imagine how stressful actually cutting would be with something so small. I've also opened my own steam deck since then, and that went without a hitch probably because I've since learned to be more careful/patient with the unscrewing process.

Dude, thanks for posting. I feel for you, been in tricky situations like this before. Sounds like you have it all back together and working properly. I also upgraded to the 1tb though I was more worried about stripping the threads rather than stripping the heads. I would never forgive myself if the case was always a little loose after I modded it because one or more screws couldn't be used. But since then I've opened it up again and replaced the back case w/ the JSAUX clear edition. Unfortunately I can't recommend it as it was a pain to install as the included thermal pads are too thick and the R4 button (any of the supplied ones) wouldn't work without modifications. Looks great does keep the CPU a bit cooler but is not easy to install. Similarly I needed the rotary tool to get it installed to my liking ;) Sometimes when you try to modify something and it doesn't go as expected you just need to roll with it. Again thanks for posting!

Personally as someone who’s puts together a lot of electronics I normally use a flat head just due to the fact that if I do strip the screw I can try to other spaces

DANG! that happened to me with the bottom screw, too! i usually use rubber bands for stripped screws, but didn't trust myself with putting any more force as yes, it is TINY. I ended up peeling the plate back very, very, VERY slowly like you did eventually there. some of those other options you mentioned/showed are very scary though.

Even I was anxious when you said the Steam Deck didn't boot up. Glad things worked out for your Deck.

I'm sure someone has mentioned it before me, but when swapping the SSD, you have to give it power before it will boot. I did something similar. I think it's a security feature of sorts. It is VERY hard to kill a Steam Deck. I've somehow "bricked" mine twice and yet haven't lost any data due to just how resilient Linux is. The spark would realistically only do damage if it was a big enough chunk to connect two points and act as solder, and I doubt there were any pieces that large. Give yourself more credit, you did good!

just finished doing my ssd on my steamdeck right after watching your video. i got the same ssd that you have. no issues with the install but after reimaging the os the face buttons would not work. after a update and a hard restart every thing works like it was supposed to. Im sorry you had a rough time but glade you got it to work. worth the upgrade hands down.

That story was crazy! Glad everything worked out in the end.

another sub here! keep the gaming reviews and tutorials you doing a excellent job

Same thing happened to me. Had two screws get stripped so I had to use a drill bit to remove them. My steamdeck also took forever to boot up so I could add the steam OS again. I had to plug it into charger for it to awake then plug my usb into. One of the most stressful things. I thought I was gonna have to buy a one multiple times during the upgrade lol

Almost every time I've helped people with stripped screws, it's because they've used the wrong size or type without knowing it. Here are two quick tips for identifying the right one: * Spot the difference between Phillips and Pozi Drive type screws. Phillips heads have a sharp cross with 90 degree corners in the middle. Pozi Drive has what looks like an extra very thin cross drawn on top of the thick cross at a 45 degree angle, which can sometimes make the center look like a star or circular shape with no clear distinguishable 90 degree corners. * Use the right size for your screw head. Smaller size tips will fit into larger size heads and in some cases even the other way around might seem to work with a lot of axial force. The easiest way to identify the right tip is to try one size larger and smaller than you think it is. Pick the one that gives the least amount of play when you don't put any axial force on it. It should also "fall" into the screw and quality tips should feel very stiff when they match a quality head. Nevertheless, this was entertaining to watch!

I was able to swap out the 64gb card out of my Steam Deck with a 512 and reload the OS in a matter of minutes... but I remember I tried to clean dust inside the screen of the launch day Vita I bought Dec 2011, and now it's ruined. I can totally relate with DIY repairs not working out. It's a good idea to consider an alternative to fixing/modding valuable electronics, even if it costs more

Wow what a wild ride, glad you got your deck working but it kinda puts me off wanting to upgrade mine!

I'm fortunate I didn't have any problems like this when I swapped out my SSD. For me the only hard parts were opening the deck itself (I used a credit card to open the plastic clips sealing it together) and then trying to slide that little foil sleeve on the SSD card itself since it was a super tight fit. I have, however, run into a similar problem when I tried repair my Nintendo 3DS. I got pretty far along into disassembling the deck when I got to one screw which would not come out at all. I tried all the same shit with a rubber band and everything and my screw driver just kept poking through the rubber band. I just gave up on fixing it eventually because at this point I'd have to take a super tiny drill bit and confidently drill right down into the 3DS which is something I didn't want to do.

I bought the 512 GB version. At first I was kind of disappointed because the upgrade looked so easy but I have run into a few videos showing the same problem. Sometimes it's nice to have a piece of mind. If I did again I probably would buy 64 GB and just buy one or two Micro SSD cards.

The terrifying thing about the spark is not the heat. the heat is come from the grinding, which also can be a problem. the spark is basicaly tiny hot metal flying around, the heat from the spark itself most of the time cant damage the component, but if u dont clean it, it can make a contact with the component and then shorting it, even if the metal dust is small, it can clumb together over time when it being used.

Super relatable, engaging and useful cautionary tale. I hate stripping screws so much

There might be problems now because of the sparks.. There were some that flew inside the deck meaning you have tiny metal shavings flying around inside a handheld device so they move. There is a chance of the shavings getting somewhere and shorting something out.

Man that's a unique way to create a hinge for the heat shield, definitely going to copy this when I finally get my deck :-)

I admire your honesty about how scared you were that you perhaps messed something up.

I've stripped a screw once inside a macbook pro. I didn't try all the "5 minute hacks" like you, bc they seemed silly. What I did eventually was drill with a (1 or 2 mm drill bit) the top of the screw. Afterwards, removing the stuff held by the screw, I had enough clearance to unscrew the thread using a pliers. I also stripped a screw on a new dell xps 17, but that time I just used a thicker bit and got the screw out. I've learned that some of these screws can be JIS and not phillips. They can look identical, but they strip if you use the wrong bit. Hope this helps

I had trouble with that same screw but I just went slowly and gently and it came out fine

I was worried doing mine, only installed the 1tb about a week ago and had the deck for 9 months it all went so smoothly i was worried i had missed something was such an amazing feeling when it booted up again(similar feeling to updating bios). If what happened to you happened to me I think id have passed out!

This is exactly why I’m not attempting this. So many times I’ve been told it’s an easy process then I run into an unexpected problem or something that’s easy for someone else but I don’t have the technical know how for.

I did this process three days ago and had the same problem with the upper screw. I didnt try all these methods and also fold the backplate and changed the ssd. The worst thing was to get that tiny screw back at this place. This tiny screws are made to get destroyed quickly. So dont consider making these process to often and buy the biggest ssd you think you might need.

Best way of removing such small stripped screws is with torx driver and a bit of pressure and if that didn't work with heating it with an soldering iron

I had the same experience with one screw being over tightened on the backplate. Almost stripped it but managed to get it out by switching to a one size larger Phillips bit.

Glad I wasn't the only one that had trouble. I stripped 9 of 11 screws, they were on way too tight. Had to drill some out, Some worked with the Crazy Glue trick. But, it's upgraded and works.

Hi, you can definitely make a video for taking out a striped screws. I used all methods you mentioned here except the drill when I fix my laptop fans. I’ll make another try sometime. Thanks for your sharing ❤

I had the same problem with one of the screws on the backplate. I removed stripped screw with slotted screwdriver

I usually file it down to a flat head if I can or as you mentioned a dremmell as long as there's no sensitive parts or fire hazards. I'm oilfield trash so I'm always looking for stuff that might kill me. Cheers 🍻 glad it worked out.

I feel ya... the 1t ssd takes a while to flash. Much longer than the smaller ssd ::edit:: I have flashed 4 ssd for 4 different steam decks now and that is how i found out. We also changed out the thermal paste for graphite thermal pads so we dont have to worry about it for the life of our steam decks.

Exact same thing happened to me on that plate except top left.... was lucky enough to be able to lift the plate enough to swap ssd but the screw is stuck there forever now stripped it

been there bro, happy that worked out. It worked out for me too, but brooo what a nightmare.

Same happened to me when i changed my ssd, but with the screw under the sticker. What i ended up doing is gently pushed up this metal thing on top and moved it around that one screw so i got the access to ssd. Obviously turned disconnected the battery. Changed the ssd and moved metal part back. Tl dr if it is only one screw you can’t move just leave it be and move metal part around it.

Had the same problem, but with two of the screws for the backplate. Bought a Jsaux backplate and the screwdriver that came with it sucks so bad that it started stripping the screws. And since someone stole all my screwdrivers, I had to buy a precision screwdriver set from Walmart and kept using the next size up bit until one actually worked.

God this just happened to me but with the smaller screws on the outside case, I opened RU-vid, and your videos was the first thing to pop up. I just took my deck to a nearby electrician and he somehow manged to get the screws out safely the rest of the upgrade process went smoothly, now I'm regretting not getting the 2TB ssd since I'm NEVER opening my steam deck ever again 😅.

Great video man but ngl I thought you were Vsauce in the thumbnail

I had the same problem with the bottom left tray. Luckily the steam deck is a recent model with black plate. I was able to still upgrade the SSD without removing it by bending it to the left side.

I upgraded mine and found that the #01 screwdriver gripped the best and worked fine for me.

I love the unintended screw puns LOL

I would have done it like you. But what also helps is using a sidecutter pliers, grabbing the head of the ccrew and then turning it with the pliers

i have the "this is fine" meme when you talk about this haha.

I had a similar problem with a stripped screw on the back cover. I just drilled out the screw! But it sucks my steam deck feels incomplete!

thankfully i dont have any stuck screw but i still feel you, the first time it boot after installing a new SSD are always stressing me. mine was even stuck in bootloop (but i just need to hard reset and it works again). idk why, but i guess because it need a network connection and my network just suddenly dead (i had very bad reception, using local wi-fi, yeah it's that bad)

i had a strip screw on my steam deck i used the little plairs that was on my swiss army knife had they had really fine tips that allowed me to grip the screw head on the side an in one of the grooves

I'm very scared to take mine apart lol I have extra components... But .. I don't want my system to crash and it be my fault ... Glad that your deck is still good man awesome vid

Did you try using a bigger bit/screw driver head to fill in the difference? Also with the Dremel you could have used it to create a "slot" on the screw to use a slotted screw driver instead. They probably added to much loctite at the factory glad it worked out. 🎉 It was definitely nerve wrecking when I did mine 😅.

So now I'm having this problem with the last backplate screw. Rubber band isn't working and I using a dremel would destroy the backplate. any ideas?

Even though I'm an IT guy, I had the exact problem as you in the video when I was upgrading my NVMe, the screw on the exact same spot you had issues with, it was screwed on tight and I could not get it off. I stripped it as well but I got it loose before I couldn't remove it anymore so I tried check if I was able to take off the cover with screw still attached and I was able remove and installed the NVMe with no issue and screw everything back except for that screw in the corner. I was lucky I messed up on my Steam Deck instead since I was upgrading the NVMe on two of them (mine and the other was a surprise (belated) birthday present for my older brother - his Deck came in a week after his birthday). I gave my brother my 512GB from a 64GB and upgraded my Deck to 1 TB. His Deck was much easier to deal with compared to mine.

Nice video thank you. Side note, I have the same Mario ? block sweet tin and also use it for screw collection when modding 😆

Mine didn't play the chime...but I could hear and feel the fan spin up...after that happened you just wait...and wait...and wait...and it comes on. Watching you do this reminded me of watching ricky from trailer park boys install a towel bar.

had the same exact issue with the same exact scew just folded it out the way like you did wasnt beacuse of the heat. heres my fun expirience for you after i did all this and flashed steam OS onto the drive it worked for a couple days then i would notice little things like games refusing to open and random crashes and reboots of the system kept reflashing the OS to fix these issues then one day it just said no bootable device i was sold a bad SSD had to get it exchanged and do the whole thing again. and then i went back into it again to change the fan out beacuse i had the delta unit which is more noisy and has issues with the dbrand case magnetic kickstand thankfully they have resolved that now with a mechanical kickstand design.

Did you try moving the backplate. Maybe the bracket was putting too much pressure on the side.

Got exact same issue removing heat sink shield from my laptop, I was also hard on time and got no way but to finish this in about hour or 2, ended up drilling that screw slowly with low momentum and barely any pressure, after few minutes screw head was removed, everything is fine now 😅

I can imagine how that feels. I had a similar experience back when I bought my nintendo 3ds and it came from overseas. I didn't know that the charger was the culprit. lets just say I screwed up some of the parts of the caused scratches and dents just by "tweaking" with it.

I upgraded my SSD with almost no issues as well. The only problem I faced was with the reimaging of steam os but after a couple of restarts, it reinstalled properly and all was good. So if you're trying to do this. Don't get scared, just be careful. Use a phone repair kit with multiple size Phillips screw bits. 00 and 000 will be your friends. Apply sufficient pressure and unscrew carefully. If you do strip the screw, use a flat head and try to cram it in it.

Now I’m even more scared to open my deck up

Quick question, do you know where the Deck keeps the save games? Some of my games don't support cloud saving and I would like to know if I can copy them to the new ssd.

In the future I'd recomend like a nail dremel bit that's used for manicures they have a much smaller surface area and I'd imagine it would be much better for something this precise. lol

Hilarious that he kept saying “screw it - I’m screwed”

Glad you got it. Gotta ask, you didn’t think to cover the deck when you used the rotary tool? Even when you saw sparks and tiny pieces of metal flying? You do great stuff, awesome channel, so I come here for info. You’re my mechanic but if you put sugar in your own gas tank do I keep coming to you? 😅

One of the biggest causes of stripped screws is using the wrong bit. Make sure that there is as little play as possible. The bit might fit, but there's a good chance it's one size too small, so testing the next size up is always a good idea.

i laughed when i saw disney lightsabers under trending search lol, great video by the way, i was hoping to teardown the back plate of my SD and replace with either 512 or 1tb.

What a Story 😂 I love how you talk about it. Very sympathetic.

What chair are you sitting on? I am looking for a nice mesh type desk chair

Not sure if you did this, but a good "first" upgrade is the switch to the hall-effect joysticks. That's really the only thing you'd wear out, so if you switch them out when you have the back open, no need to open it again in the future

They sell screw extractor kits that literally dig into the metal like a drill bit creating more grip to be more likely to extract the screw or just end up completely removing the head

The amount of times he said “screw it” or “i am screwed”.

I ended up stripping the 4 screws at the top. I tried rubber and it didn't work. Most youtube channels said it was easy to upgrade, but it really isn't as it's very easy to strip these screws.

I stripped all the screws on the back of mine but "1". 😭 had to break the back cover to get in. ended up breaking the bottom tabs that the back cover clips into thank god for replacement covers might have to replace front and back now but still after spending 600 between buying the unit and ssd everything else now I'm stuck spending more to repair a brand new unit 😂

It's like I'm watching "A Series of Unfortunate Events" XD

Same thing happened to me when putting it all back together as far as it not turning on. From unplugging the battery you need power delivery to wake the deck up. So plugging in the charger then hitting power button will wake up the system. When i first got my steam deck i remember having to plug the charger in first when turning it on for the first time. It wouldnt power up otherwise

I'm glad it still works 😁👍🏻

Reminds me of when I took my 3ds apart to replace the Sd card reader. It was my first time fixing anything and I had the wrong size screw driver. I ended up messed up so many screws and for awhile it was taped together in one spot. Years later I replaced the screws and remove one that was badly stripped. I used a drill and ended up knocking a capacitor off of the motherboard. I got it fixed by a professional but the board died a few weeks later... Long story short, I feel your pain.

Did the 2tb while I was in a meeting talking on video…took me about 10 minutes.. then installed windows

i had the same issue all screws came out easily then i had a screw almost completely strip luckily i was able to use a small flat head bit and take it out

Corporate America: "How will we destroy Right to Repair initiatives?" Lackee: "Tell vendors and manufacturers to overtighten all their screws."

You earned a sub!

Oh man, I just finished upgrading my deck to 2TB. I also stripped my screw, It was the one under the sticker of the backplate. yup the middle one. I took a deep breath and somehow was able to turn the screw slowly. It was out by no time. But for your case. the bottom right corner of the backplate comes without a screw, you can just put one there and you should be fine.

Yikes! 😵‍💫😵 Glad it worked out in the end.

Idk if anyone eles had this problem but I was missing 2 screws from the metal piece inside the deck I don't see how that could be missed. I got the deck directly from valve. AND YES THE SCREWS WERE SOOO TIGHT!!!

I was surprised myself how flimsy that "heat shield" was, when I was working on my deck last time. I could, literally, just bend the back plate out of it's position, and then back into it's original position, just by removing one screw. It's almost like tin foil how flimsy that cover is.

You don't have to unplug the battery just have to put it into battery storage mode upgraded mine a few days ago

New SSD gets here tomorrow and this is my worst nightmare.

Straight to my mini torx bits...

I was waiting for the Step 6 and you have to break out a chainsaw.

Why did I watch this video before bed? I'm going to have nightmares about this now as my ssd is arriving today and it's my turn to swap it out. I'm already clenching beyond limits... wish me luck when the time comes.

Out of all the defects to get an over tight screw 😮

Where did you buy the replacement screws from..

I got all the screws except of the one under the tin foil so i couldn't open it from the side the way you did. I had to bend it from the bottom. It mostly worked but when putting it back it's still a little bent on the topside, it's not making contact with the heat sinks(from my pov)。 The middle part with the pads seems to be fine..Still kinda worried about temps now. Anyone who has bent it the way i did and cares to shate his experience?

this is me when i was buiding my PC on my own, so much jank and so much things that could go wrong and apparently when u go online, the jank is part of the package of PC building and I guess you just proved that it can be pretty much the same in the steam deck 😂

I recommend you get a good set of bits . For the screwdriver. Like the IFixit set 😉